As suprising (not) as Joe Ratzinger's resignation today as Pope Benedict XVI may have been, he did the right thing. The Catholic Church is so dysfunctional that it'll take years to begin to fix it (and although he was an insider for decades, it got to be too much even for him) -- and the fact he's had to have Midnight Mass for Christmas at 10 pm four years in a row was warning that this was going to happen. One has to wonder if he's much worse than he's letting on. Alzheimer's, perhaps? We now know that Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II) was diagnosed with Parkinson's as far back as 1989 and he thought about quitting.
Matter of fact the last time a Pope resigned was Angelo Correr (Gregory XII) in 1415 in a bold move to end the impasse between the Roman and Avignon churches and later even that of Pisa, all of which claimed to have the real Pope.
Was Ratz health the issue? Was he shoved out? Who knows, but he did the right thing by walking away before becoming so incapacitated that no one would know who was in control. Catholics, including disaffected ones like me, would need that like a shot in the head.
Doing the right thing. How refreshing.
Too bad Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau haven't figured out how to do the honourable thing for themselves and their country.
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